Providing a recommendation letter directly to the student

Question

I'm going to apply for a Ph.D. position in a nordic country, and as you know, I need my current supervisor recommendation letter.

I asked my supervisor to provide me with a recommendation letter regarding all the researches I have done in his lab. He responds that even though he is more than happy to provide one, but he never provides any recommendation letter directly to a student. Instead, he will only send such a letter to any professor/university who formally asks about one.

The whole process looks problematic to me for many reasons:

1. I can't ask my new supervisor to ask my old supervisor to ask for a recommendation for me. No supervisor would do such a thing because there is really tough competition between candidates. Most of them already have strong recommendation letters. The only scenario I can think of is when the university itself sends such an email, where there is no such procedure in the case of at least Sweden.

2. I have to apply via a web form inside the university's website where the application form asks for at least 2 recommendation letters (in PDF format). There is no place in that form for me to add my professor's email.

3. I didn't see such a process anywhere in at least nordic countries. Almost all my friends received their recommendation letters from their previous professors.

What's the best approach in such a situation?

Edit I'm going to apply for a position in Sweden.

Answer 1

Having the letter of recommendation (LoR) writer send the LoR directly to the institution to which you are applying is indeed the standard procedure in the English-speaking world and increasingly beyond. In this procedure, the LoR is confidential; only the issuer and the recipient(s) should normally see it.

The process works as follows:

• Online forms usually have two "sides". The first side is for you, the applicant. You enter the name and email address of your LoR writer, after you have obtained their approval. An email will be sent to the LoR writer with a link to "their" side of the website, to which they can then upload the letter and perhaps additional information.
• For the offline process, you write your application, and the LoR writer sends in their LoR independently from you before the deadline.

However, in some countries (until recently e.g. in Germany and Austria) a different procedure is used, in which the LoR is handed to the applicant who then submits it together with their application (via website or offline).

I would contact the HR or admissions (whichever is applicable) department at the institution where you are applying and ask for clarification, then talk to your LoR writer again. If the institution explicitly requests that you hand in the letter, you can just relay this information to your supervisor. You may also want to make your supervisor aware of different traditions of LoR writing in different countries. Alternatively, ask the HR/admissions department whether they can accept a LoR directly from your supervisor.

Answer 2

While uncommon, some applications do ask the applicant to submit the letter directly - as a PDF. This is very rare, and I have had many faculty simply refuse to submit the letter that way. I have also received notably redacted letters this way. Neither is good for the applicant. What I tend to do is upload a PDF with the writer's contact information and a note that the letter will be sent directly to the institution (usually the dept. secretary, the dept. chair, or the advisor). I would then follow up within a day or so after the writer confirms that the letter was sent to make sure the letter got where it needed to be